The Investigation of Instruction of Transformation Geometry in the 7th Grade Mathematics Textbooks with respect to Curricula

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate teaching of transformation geometry in the 7th grade mathematics textbooks based on the 2009 mathematics curriculum. Among qualitative research designs, document analysis was used to examine four 7th grade textbooks. The data analysis was conducted by using a code matrix which is consisted of three dimensions: Instruction, Skills, Measurement and Evaluation. According to the findings, it is seen that the textbooks have tried to accomplish most of the instructional stages claimed in
the mathematics curriculum, yet the Exploration stage has never been applied for several objectives in some textbooks, which has been considered to be an important deficiency. In the second dimension which is Skills have been examined based on the basic math satndards mentioned in the mathematics curriculum. Among the basic math standards, Connections has been applied frequently in the textbooks, especially real life connection have been emphasized more. Moreover, findings have also shown that some connections from social sciences and visual arts are also used in the textbooks. It is also conducted that Communication standards are used in all
textbooks, but yet multiple representations are discussed rarely. On the other hand, use of mathematical language in written or oral forms is used in all textbooks. The examined textbooks have presented instructions on reasoning standards to conduct logical inference and generalizations. Measurement and Evaluation which is the last dimension has included the variety of questions, self-assessment and peer evaluation. While short answer questions are preferred for all textbooks, fill-in-the-blanks, matching and true-false types of questions are rarely used. Only two textbooks use fill-in-the-blanks, matching or true-false types of questions for the related objectives. Only two textbooks use forms for self-assessment, and none use peer evaluation. Findings from the study show that a lot of important concepts regarding the curriculum are not included, applied and reflected in the textbooks.